A Group at INTO OSU

Monthly Archives: October 2012

We recently completed a report on INTO Oregon State University’s iPad pilot. Here is a section of the introduction:

“In Fall 2011, INTO OSU invested in a classroom set of thirty iPads. Michelle Scholz and Jim Jamieson made the initial proposal, which was successfully funded by INTO. The project came at a time when according to the PEW Research Center (2011) approximately 11% of Americans were using iPads. People were using iPads to check email, read news, check social networking sites, play games, and to a lesser extent read books and watch videos. The average user was not using the iPad as a learning aide. However, the iPad group at INTO OSU saw numerous features which could be exploited for the purpose of language learning. Mitchell (2012) explained the features as follows:

+ Portability— This allows us to bring class materials and activities into settings that might be more interesting or authentic.
+ Connectivity— This allows us to access materials from around the web, simplifying dictionary searches, research, and so forth. It also allows us to publish on the web more easily.
+ Multimodality—This allows students to escape their black and white books for a world of interactive videos, pictures, and multimedia authorship. These features can help create meaningful learning opportunities, including creating multimodal digital flashcards and analyzing sources found online.”

The book outlines how these features were utilized in a variety of iPad activities and presents over 40 app reviews. If you’re interested in downloading it, it’s available in the iBook store here.

I am giving a workshop tomorrow at Willamette University for pre-service teachers. We are going to talk about giving audio feedback through screencast-o-matic and making audio recordings through audioboo.
The handouts from the presentation are below:

Did you know that the 2014 TESOL Convention is going to be in Portland, Oregon? I couldn’t be more excited. It’s going to be a great convention. Here are some numbers we learned at the preparation meeting this week:

6,500 attendees

700 education sessions

150 exhibitors

300 volunteers

That last number is actually a little frightening. 300 volunteers. Luckily, we live in a great state, and I know so many people will be willing to help. If you’re one of those people, keep your eyes out for emails from ORTESOL about volunteering before and during the convention.